Get down with James Brown in San Jose

Edvins Beitiks, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Friday, August 7, 1998

1998-08-07 04:00:00 PDT SAN JOSE -- SATURDAY night at the San Jose Arena, James Brown will step out on stage to grab the audience by the throat. The KFRC Oldies Jam at the Arena will also feature Chubby Checker, Little Anthony & the Imperials and the Tokens. But it's Brown who'll own the spotlight.

Brown, 65 years old, has influenced singers as far flung as Van Morrison, Prince, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton, Deborah Coleman and John Cougar Mellencamp. Three months ago, on the same stage at the San Jose Arena, Morrison called Brown "Soul Brother number one, two, three, four, five and six" before belting out "It's a Man's World" in tribute.

But Brown's not content to sit back and be an icon. In addition to headlining the Oldies Jam, he's stuffing his calendar with concerts and recordings.

Last year Brown joined ZZ Top for the halftime show at the Super Bowl, earlier this year he appeared in "The Blues Brothers 2000" with Clapton, Wilson Pickett, Bo Diddley, B.B. King and Isaac Hayes, and he has just returned from a concert tour of Italy, England and Scotland.

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Brown will be on a new album on Private Eye records to be released this fall - an album he recorded with Pat Boone, the Four Tops and the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and Sister Sledge. The cuts were recorded last April, three months after Brown was hospitalized near his home in Aiken County, S.C., for an addiction to painkillers he'd been taking for back troubles brought on by a five-concert tour.

Brown has had his troubles with the law, including arrests for drug possession and a six-year prison sentence after a wild two-state car chase with police in 1988, which led a local DJ to say, "It's a hell of a world when James Brown is in jail and Ollie North is appearing at the Circle Star."

In a recent on-air interview with KFRC, Brown was his old self, laughing and saying, "San Jose, Oakland, San Jose, the whole Bay Area, Brown is on his way to get down!" He quoted close friend Rev. Al Sharpton as saying, "I'm a preacher, but I've been around, I've been all over town, and one thing I've found, if you want to get down, better find James Brown."

"He's still doing it. He's still got the big band behind him, quite an entourage. He's still putting that cape on, still doing his thing."

Little Anthony & the Imperials, led by Anthony Gourdine, is best known for "Tears on My Pillow," "Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko-Bop," "Hurt So Bad" and "Goin' Out of My Head." Alan Freed gave Little Anthony his nickname in 1958, even though Gourdine stands almost 5-foot-9, and producers at his record company thought so much of Freed's power they changed the pressing labels on "Tears on My Pillow" to "Little Anthony." The song climbed to No. 2 on the R&B charts, No. 4 on pop lists, leading to a successful string of hits.

The Tokens come to San Jose after singing the National Anthem at Monday's A's-Yankees game, part of their bid to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" at all 30 major league ball parks. In between, they're taking their 1961-62 chart topper, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," on the road.

Checker, a native of Philadelphia who changed his name from Ernest Evans, is best known for "The Twist," a cover of Hank Ballard's 1958 tune that shot up the charts in 1960. By the time "Let's Twist Again" was hitting No. 1 in 1962, Checker had an unprecedented five albums on the Top 15 list. Checker also did "The Pony," "The Fly,

"Limbo," "Popeye," "Birdland" and "The Mess Around." He got back on the charts in 1988, recording

"You can't say "The Twist' is a craze," he told KFRC. " 'The Twist' is like a way of life that's gone on for 40 years, 365 days for 40 years . . . Chubby Checker is in your life whether you like it or not.

"Before Chubby Checker, rock had just been jivin'," he said. "After Chubby Checker, rock's been rollin'."

Checker said he sincerely loves San Jose. "I do know the way to San Jose, and I need you to know I love it very much. . . . You've got an old-car place there and every time I come to town I check out that place. I love it."

Checker promised to make San Jose remember him. "We're going to kill 'em, thrill 'em and chill 'em," he said.

"Nothing's going to be the same after we leave."

The KFRC Oldies Jam begins at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $28.50, $25.50 and $22.50, plus a service charge, available through Bay Area Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, call KFRC at (415) 391-9970 or Ticketmaster.&lt;